Golf is a very popular outdoor sporting game which is played on a golf course. In playing a golf game, different golf clubs, for example, woods, irons and putters, are usually required to impart an optimal drive to the ball and to hit the golf ball towards and into a hole during the various phases of a golf game.
Golf clubs are usually kept together in a golf bag for easy storage and convenient transportation to and from golf courses and between holes. Golf bags are usually designed to allow easy and quick retrieval of the various clubs during a game. A typical golf bag is an elongate bag with a rigid moulded top collar and a closed moulded bottom member at its longitudinal ends together with a circumferential enclosure extending between the top collar and the bottom member. The top collar is usually supported from the bottom member by a plurality of rigid stays which are usually distributed around the edge of the bottom member and which are typically rigid plastic posts extending between the top collar and the bottom member.
Golf clubs are usually stored in a golf bag with the club heads protruding above a cushioned partitioning member formed on the top collar and with the handles resting on the upper surface of the bottom member. As the bottom member has to bear almost all the weight of golf clubs, it must be reasonably strong and is usually a moulded piece made of hard plastics. To avoid the handles from rocking about in the bottom of a golf bag during transportation or from entangling with each other which may cause damage, breakage or undesirable scratches, good golf bags are always formed with a number of small compartments which are small enough to limit excessive and undesirable movement of the clubs.
The compartments are generally formed by flexible partitioning or dividing straps which are taut and which extend between the moulded top collar member and the moulded bottom member of a golf bag. To provide for a framework of compartments, a rigid partitioning member forming a grid of rigid ridges which defines the peripheral walls of the compartments is usually formed across the aperture defined by the top collar member. The flexible straps are usually made, for example, of fabric. Nylon or polyester are preferred because they are light and friendly to the shafts of golf clubs.
Golf bags are usually transported in their complete or finished form from manufacturers to distributors and then to the end users or consumers. As a typical golf bag generally includes a hollow and substantially cylindrical body with the top collar member defining the general cross section with the longitudinal length approximately equal to the length of the golf clubs, golf bags are generally very bulky and are relatively expensive to transport, even though they are not particularly heavy. The high transportation costs are particularly noticeable when finished golf bags are transported by containers, courier, air freight in which case the transportation costs are generally proportional to the volume of the goods being delivered.
Furthermore, golfers or golf bag users generally find it very inconvenient when they have to transport golf bags from one place to another, for example, between home and golf courses, because of the bulkiness of the golf bag. As a result, when a few golfers are travelling together on road for golf playing, cars with relatively a large storage space must be selected to accommodate the golf bags.
Hence, it will be desirable if golf bags can be made into kit forms, such as semi-knocked down kit forms, which can be easily assembled without undue complexities and the need of specific tools. To facilitate easy transportation and handling by users, it will be highly desirable if there can be provided golf bags which can be collapsed and re-assembled without unduly complicated efforts and tools.